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1. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, Transworld

2. Nature via Nurture by Matt Ridley, Fourth Estate/HarperCollins

3. Eurekas and Euphorias by Walter Gratzer, Oxford University Press

4. Looking for Spinoza by Antonio Damasio, Heinemann/Random House

5. Rosalind Franklin by Brenda Maddox, HarperCollins

6. The IgNobel Prizes by Marc Abrahams, Orion

7. Wild Flowers of Britain and Ireland by Marjorie Blamey, Alastair Fitter and Richard Fitter, A & C Black

8. Our Final Century^* by Martin Rees, Random House/Basic Books

9. Echo of the Big Bang by Michael Lemonick, Princeton University Press

10. How to Dunk a Doughnut by Len Fisher, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

For a bit of holiday reading, try one of these bestsellers. Bill Bryson’s tales of his hunt for science and scientists is a good place to begin. For humour and science – a difficult combination to bring off – try Marc Abrahams’s IgNobel prizes or the comedy of science in everyday life according to Len Fisher and Walter Gratzer. Martin Rees brings a note of gloom to the party, while the big questions find answers from Matt Ridley, Michael Lemonick and Antonio Damasio. Flowers all the way with Marjorie Blamey, and a life less ordinary in Brenda Maddox’s Rosalind Franklin.